Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…usicians the fun of the traditional dances. You got mad at the stubborn girl, you got scared when the hunter returned and you celebrated for the new chief. On the way to Fort Murchison where we were staying, we saw some spectacular stormy scenes as we crossed the River Nile:…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…rial with audio sync. Once the microphones are set up we ask the musicians to perform a few bars of their first track to check the microphone gains and record levels. The video team check their shots and talk about who will be covering which part of the footage. Then, once we are setup, we begin to record the performances. Takes are logged by the day, so the first take of the day becomes take number one. Note taking and logging is incredibly impor…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…en and their stories during and after the war, as they keep their families together through work dawn to dusk. Ker Kal Kwaro In complete contrast to our first band, the second and fourth band were all dance and percussion. First, Ker Kal Kwaro was a full dance band with amazing percussion, similar to some of the groups we met yesterday. The great thing about this band was its youth, with most of the dancers and percussionists under the age of 15….
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drum…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…All the time, the high rises of Kampala were in view but it felt like an altogether not very nice place. The harsh divide between wealth and poverty is alarmingly clear, and the architecture spells it out. Ultimately we all made it to super-market where we loaded up with money, mobile phone cards and other sundries and headed out. The William car stopped to pick up Akello, a lovely Ugandan singer/songwriter, who is joining the group as our Influen…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…s are most prominent, and, largely, string and wind instruments are played together: Distribution of all string instruments Distribution of all wind instruments What was most difficult about this field of research? Tati handled most of the primary research, and, naturally, this was difficult as information on the subject is fairly scarce and sometimes contradictory. However, the beauty of the map (as with search engines and onlin…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…feast on Kisoro locusts during our locust attack). They ran a lovely hotel and greeted us warmly with Nile Specials! We handed off a pile of Batwa DVD’s for them to take back to the Traveller’s Rest and hit the sack. Jimmy (Entebbe)…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ishing lines. The two wooden beams are bamboo sticks and wood chips bonded together using bees wax, which helps create a deep echoing sound. Gender: The nyatiti is traditionally only played by a man. The first four days after a male’s birth and a male’s death in the Luo are said to be very special in their culture. The lower four strings of the nyatiti represent the first four days of his birth, and the upper four strings represent the four days a…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…ivutia, went on a recce around Northern Uganda in September to help us put together an itinerary, I endeavored to discover a little more about the music we’d be discovering. Gulu: First we will discover the music of the Acholi tribe in Agago, where a variety of different styles of music are performed, each with there own different purposes. Click here to learn about the Acholi People. 1. We will hopefully see a performance of the Bwola, a traditio…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…speed of light and transformed the song. He was so good, we decided to put together a magic moment. Watch this space for videos. We recorded right through to 9PM and the ‘northern folks’ rushed to the airport. The Ketebul crew continued to work in the studio, led by Jessie who loves bringing Singing Wells musicians into the studio. Hunter and Jimmy will board our flight at about 11PM and with a 12 midnight wheels up, we will officially end the ‘fi…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…cused our recording time on Mr Manager, their quite sincere thank you song to a factory manager that came to their factory and actually did a good job. We always found this song amazing – the group is deadly serious in their thank you to the manager. But in many ways, we kept thinking it is sad that they find it so rare for someone to essentially do his job that they need to write a song. Johnnie, Bishop and Eddie all joined in to support them in…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…y really started at 7:30am when Tabu discovered the Jeep had a flat tyre. This moved our departure time from the two hotels (Eldoret Club and Pine Tree) from 8am to about 9.30am. The tyre had a damaged tube that just wore out. We reassembled and headed off for a spectacular trip from an altitude of 2,800m down to 1,114m at one of the floors of the Great Rift Valley. The roads were more winding and steeper than on our trip to Rwanda last November b…
Alur Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…eir own and they had salt licks adhering to their hooves. Nyapiri gathered together his people and followed the track of the cows into the highlands of West Nile. He left behind one of his sons caked Dosha to rule Pakwach. Nyapiri then established himself in the west Nile highlands. Customs: The Alur subsist primarily from agriculture. For more information about the Alur people, visit everyculture.com, or (website 1), (website 2) and (website 2) a…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…woman to marry him. One singer carries a horn used to call people to come together, if there’s an attack or a meeting of the tribe. The women wore small gourds around their necks that would contain oil used to smear on people after circumcision. They also wear beads crossing their chest which are given to them after female circumcision. Their belts are decorated with cowry shells and are used to drape over a woman’s abdomen when she is giving bir…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…mply couldn’t help herself. That is the power of music. We will try to put together a video clip of her best moments. Lomuke Group We recorded 9 songs: Anya Kar, Chepo Laleiyo, Kirap, Kiter, Kiyuar, Asoiyen, Adong’o and Montonyo. The women were dressed in white, carrying sticks and the men carried spears and their portable chairs/sleeping pillows. Kalomoywa We recorded 8 songs with them and a magic moment of wonderful chorus. The songs were: Kinya…
Music of Northern Uganda News
…lptor David Lukani Odwar in 2005, transforming a former colonial golf club to a place for training and exchange and to promote and celebrate local cultural achievements. Joyce and David aim to engage people in post-conflict Northern Uganda in the creative arts; resuscitate local arts, crafts and arts education and recover, heal and develop local cultural traditions. With Joyce Laker Director TAKS Centre in Gulu Although Steve and Patrick were…